In the Events Diary, you see a list of scheduled one-off and league events. In the game lobby, you can also see a list of events due to start in the next 3 hours.

You are advised to read an event's details carefully, as there are several variations. In some, the racetrack lends a vehicle to each competitor, while in others you must supply your own vehicles. Some events allow a gang to control more than one vehicle. Some have restrictions in terms of the engine size, chassis type, or weapons that are allowed.

Scheduling
Depending on the type of event, one of these scheduling schemes will be used:

• Pre-scheduled: these events appear in the events diary and game lobby and are held at a pre-arranged time, determined by the game server. Any event involving more than 2 gangs or squads falls within this category.
• On-demand: these events are held soon after they are created by the player or players involved. Ladder challenges and wilderness scouting combats are typical event types that fall within this category.
• Player choice: these events happen whenever it suits the player, and only apply to events involving a human-controlled gang or squad, versus a computer-controlled (NPC) gang. On-the-road wilderness encounters and attacks on NPC facilities fall within this category.

Timetrials

These are rarely stand-alone events but normally act as qualifiers for races and deathraces. You will see the qualifiers for a race event listed on the race's page on the website, as well as in the game lobby. Timetrials are unique, in that you can turn up anytime during the event (which has a defined length of time). Your vehicle is not created in-game until you turn up. You can also resign from a timetrial event anytime you like, and any lap times you have recorded will be stored. Typically, players post a few laps only, and do not need to attend for the entire length of the timetrial event.

If you close the game client program, or otherwise stop responding to the server, your vehicles will be removed after 30 gametime seconds, and you won't get them back. In other events (races, deathraces, combats), the server will control your vehicles if you disappear without resigning. If you offically resign (through the menu at the top of the screen in the game client), your vehicles will disappear after 5 game seconds.

There are some extra options that are only available in timetrials, not in other event types:
(1) 'Reset!' - You'll find this by right-clicking your car: this sets your car back to the starting grid and (if the car was supplied by the racetrack) you get a shiny new one. (Ok, not very shiny.)
(2) 'Change Driver!' - again, right-click your car in-game. This allows you to replace your current driver with another one from your gang (perhaps your driver isn't feeling too well after hitting a barrier at 80mph). The car must be stopped before changing drivers.

Races
Make sure to log in to these before the official start time, otherwise the server will control your car until you arrive. If the race had no qualifiers, and you don't turn up within the first 30 game seconds, then your cars will be removed. Races don't have a fixed time limit, but are based on number of laps. As each car finishes the race, it is removed from the game. If you have more than one character in your vehicle, you can switch driver by opening the car's 'Manage' panel and then right-clicking on the character who you want to take over driving. The vehicle does not need to be stopped to do this.

Deathraces
These are races in which weapons are allowed. In all other respects, they are the same as races. OK, perhaps a little more dangerous.

Combats

Combats are conducted either in manmade (or natural) arenas, on-the-road during a journey, or else at a location of strategic importance, such as a factory or oil field. There are several different types of combat event: Arena combats involving two teams made up of cars from each of several gangs (pre-scheduled) On the road combats (scheduled by player choice) that occur while your squad is travelling. These normally take the form of vehicle-vs-vehicle combat, but sometimes you may find yourself in the wilderness on foot, and attacked by wild animals or mutants. Scouting outside town combats, which may happen between two human squads or a human squad and an NPC gang. You may also unwittingly get involved in one of these combats when you are leaving from a town to start a journey, or arriving at a town following a journey: squads of player-controlled and NPC pirates often hang around near town to prey on incoming trade convoys such as yours! Challenge combats, conducted outside town by mutual consent of the owners of two player squads. Facility Attack combats (scheduled by mutual agreement, or by player choice if one of the two gangs is NPC) - if the owner of the facility (factory, etc.) loses, then the winner takes over control of it.

Arena Combats
These are scheduled, in-town events that are carried out between two opposing teams. When multiple gangs are involved, they are randomly assigned to the teams.

In order to determine the final rankings of an arena combat, a points system is used. You get points for damaging cars from the opposing team. You lose points for damaging cars from your own team. The amount of points scored is basically the damage amount, multiplied by the combat rating of the car you have damaged.

Combat rating is therefore a sort of handicapping factor which makes arena combats more challenging - you can't just enter with a massively armed vehicle and expect to cruise to victory. Note that any type of damage is included -- this is not just from weapon fire but also from crashing into the enemy. Also, whoever has most recently damaged a car will also gain points if that car subsequently crashes into an obstacle, even if that happens 10 seconds afterwards. Dropped weapons such as mines and spikes also score points.

Finally, you should also be aware that an arena combat runs for 120 game moves, or until all cars from one team have resigned. If the latter, then all non-resigned cars from the winning team have their points total multiplied by 1.5 before the combat ends and the prizes are distributed.